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Hyde Park
Overview Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner. The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park covers 142 hectares (350 acres) and Kensington Gardens covers 111 hectares (275 acres), giving an overall area of 253 hectares (625 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 ha/484 acres), though smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 ha/843 acres). To the southeast, outside of the park, is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton. History *On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses. *In 1536, Henry VIII acquired the manor of Hyde from the canons of Westminster Abbey, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest; it was enclosed as a deer park and remained a private hunting ground until James I permitted limited access to gentlefolk, appointing a ranger to take charge. Charles I created the Ring (north of the present Serpentine boathouses), and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. Places to Note *Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the northeast corner near Marble Arch), close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, and Rotten Row, which is the northern boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. South of the Serpentine is the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on 6 July 2004. To the east of the Serpentine, just beyond the dam, is London's Holocaust Memorial. A magnificent specimen of a botanical curiosity is the Weeping Beech, Fagus sylvatica pendula, cherished as "the upside-down tree". Opposite Hyde Park Corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough. *There are several restaurants dotted throughout the park, all of them requiring reservation and are usually reserved for the higher class diner. Magical History *Throughout the 1800's there was a portion of the park disillusioned from muggle visitors to allow magical families to play with their families without risk of being caught. *In the 1900's, due to a misfortunate accident, this disillusioned portion of the park was removed, obliviators worked for ten years as balloon sellers to ensure that any muggles believing that the park had 'grown' would be quickly silenced. *In recent history, it has become a much more popular location for the magical community and as such, the Ministry of Magic employs a groundskeeper with obliviation abilities at all times to be in the look out for stray curses. See Also *Hogsmeade Category:OMApedia A to Z Category:Locations